Could Trump Go to Prison? If He Does, the Secret Service Goes, Too
Could Trump Go to Prison? If He Does, the Secret Service Goes, Too
Officials have had preliminary discussions about how to protect the former president in the unlikely event that he is jailed for contempt during the trial.
The U.S. Secret Service is in the business of protecting the president, whether he’s inside the Oval Office or visiting a foreign war zone.
But protecting a former president in prison? The prospect is unprecedented. That would be the challenge if Donald J. Trump — whom the agency is required by law to protect around the clock — is convicted at his criminal trial in Manhattan and sentenced to serve time.
Even before the trial’s opening statements, the Secret Service was in some measure planning for the extraordinary possibility of a former president behind bars. Prosecutors had asked the judge in the case to remind Mr. Trump that attacks on witnesses and jurors could land him in jail even before a verdict is rendered.
I would hope that being found guilty of treason would revoke any duty to protect them by the secret service...
Is it only about protecting him or also avoiding him discussing unwanted topics with other inmates in that case? He’s still the recipient of privileged information…
From what I remember the secret service can opt to stop protecting him.
Nope.
Under current United States federal law, all former presidents are entitled to lifetime protection from the Secret Service. Barring an act of Congress or a presidential executive order, the Secret Service is bound by law to protect former presidents for life. There aren't any exceptions listed in the statute governing the protection of former presidents. Source
They can't opt out, but HE can.
We just need to convince him that they're spying for the libs or some shit.
Surely they will build him his own prison or convert his house into a prison.
Like I get it if he needs to go to jail than so be it. But let's be real, he can't actually go to prison.
Trump will not go to a normal prison / gen pop, etc. Toss that thought from your mind.
Trump will die in a shitty military barracks on a shitty military base where he has no internet connection, access to him can be easily controlled & he can't blab state secrets.
There is already a precedent here with Nixon's lawyer.
Other than your first sentence, this is pure fantasy. He'll never go far enough to trigger actual accountability from those that matter...
Is that Mitchell you're referencing?
Yes.
I feel like losing the protection of the secret service should be part of being tried and convicted of a crime if you are the president.
The secret service will be there to prevent other inmates from beating national secrets out of him.
Trump would likely be segregated from other prisoners (aka solitary confinement) for his own safety & the safety of the guards.
Shit all they have to do is tell him the Democrats said XYZ and he'd tell them why they're wrong.
Is anything that man had access to even a "secret" anymore?
I honestly doubt he remembers anything at this point.
yeah but the principle of the thing, whatever it was, says you shouldn't do that. Things are so bad right now its hard to give a shit.
So one thing I don't fully understand is this: the secret service is required by law to protect the former president, but...is there anything that actually requires the state of New York to accommodate the secret service in doing so?
In theory, couldn't the state of New York just actually throw Trump in prison, no special privileges, and also no special accommodations for the secret service?
I would LOVE to see that scenario. Trump goes to prison as he deserves and gets his special accommodations all revoked either by the court or the prison or whatever.
Being immune to repercussions of your crimes because you are in a certain position is a very bad thing.
I'm pretty sure the Supremacy Clause would make it a very bad time for whoever is unconstitutionally trying to block federal agents from protecting the criminal-in-chief.
Perhaps, but I don't think they'd push the issue.
The fact that this is where American is at is disgraceful.
This traitor needs the maximum penalty and his supporters need to undergo some sort of education on Russian propoganda.
"I don't think he knows about second education on Russian propaganda, Pippin."
Even if convicted he'll get house arrest. I doubt he will ever see a club Fed from the inside, let alone a supermax.
Maybe a military prison?
For the sake of the secret service people, I hope he gets the very first president solitary wing named after him
Exactly. The logistics of housing a president in a prison are too hard. It's already set up for his residence.
It will be worse for him if he's locked up in Trump Tower or Mar-A-Lago. People who were locked up in Alcatraz said the worst part was hearing everyone in the city have fun and go on in their lives. It would literally be torture for someone who has never known adversity.
Yeah, being limited and told where you cannot go ain't no picnic. People might wish him to wear an orange jumpsuit and be placed in genpop, but that won't happen.
Secret service will end up doubling as prison guards automatically. I just wonder if house arrest will also limit visits and communication.
But this trial probably will not lead to prison though.
I was reading somewhere that congress has introduced legislation barring the secret service from protecting the president once the president is convicted. But good luck getting that passed.
Saves taxpayer dollars and opens a lucrative subcontractor job for the Aryan Brotherhood. His base will love it, especially later in the summer
Kind of like Egyptian kings getting buried with their servants.
Never understood keeping secret service protection after they are no longer in power? As anyone tried to kill a former president?
Every president in or out of office has information of national security that is in our best interests to protect. Correct me if I'm wrong but wasn't the password to launch nukes 1234 for like 60 years. They could've kidnapped like 5 ex-presidents and been able to launch nukes from the info obtained even if common logic says it should be obsolete.
Maybe they'll get lucky and his cameras will go off for a while when he's on "constant suicide watch."
I hope that this happens and every single SS agent assigned to this post quits. Who would take a job to be in jail protecting a farting lunatic? Welcome to the SS Johnson, your entire life will be spent behind bars!
ACAB, and the Secret Service is full of cops. They like Trump. That's very clear from their internal memos about the Oath Keepers prior to Jan 6:
If Trump tried to plan a prison break right in front of them, they would probably pretend they heard nothing.
They would be helping him.
Instead of El Chapo it would be El Cheapo
I know they do, but nobody wants to spend their life guarding anyone in prison their whole life, no matter how much they love him, at some point they will want something else lol
The SS assigned to Trump fight for the job. They love him.
Love to see them spend life in prison being his canasta partner then
Why not just build a small presidential prison?
We already have prisons to hold spies.
I'm imagining the Magneto plastic prison, but in the middle of the Capitol building rotunda.
Even then, I think that they'd have to protect him.
It's solitary, then. 🤷♂️
Just in case any future presidents need it. /s
It's unsatisfying to say, but house arrest would make the most sense for the secret service.
But not for the judge.
One of the reasons he's being found in contempt is for making threatening comments on social media. Jail stops that behavior. House arrest does not.
Throw him in a solitary super max prison cell. Security won't be needed.
Apparently it's not as safe as that unless they put more effort into having trusted people in the control room.
If he ends up in jail he will definitely be in a segregation unit. Which is solitary in most county jails.
Why? If he's a convicted criminal, strip his salary and all his benefits, including the secret service.
Im sure he'll be very secure without them. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADX_Florence
Maybe we would finally get prison reform, then
Cool, take them all to a black site in one of those shithole countries he rants about. Guantanamo Bay still open?
obviously it wouldnt be prison like real prison but more of like goodfellas prison
In there wit de two yutes
"how many onions you put in the sauce? That's too many onions"
Other countries have jailed their leaders. If you’re a felon and get jailed as a former President I figure you should lose everything, SS protection, any pension and any benefits are gone too. Why should a jailed president get those things?
I don’t like it any more than you do. But a former president is still a very significant national security concern. Assassination is quite honestly the most minor concern there is for a former president. Extortion, blackmail, sabotage, espionage, all these things (and more) become a viable threat once USSS protection is gone. There’s a reason why we protect our former POTUS.
I would love to be the USSS person in charge of logistics for this.
I don’t know why. It would be like a strategy/sim game.
All the other agents have different attributes, and the conditions at the prison change during the day.
I’ve already put too much thought into it and I have no idea why I find it interesting.
I was hoping this was about the Secret Service deleting insurrection related text messages, but sadly not.
Guantanamo bay was practically designed for this scenario. Just dump his ass there and forget about him.
In the extraordinarily unlikely scenario this Cheeto ever sees a day in prison, it sure as fuck won't be a normal prison. It will be a white collar situation and honestly he would probably be the only person there. Could you imagine the fucking shit storm putting him in gen pop??
Could you imagine the fucking shit storm putting him in gen pop??
He'd be too hard to protect in gen pop. The most realistic way to put Trump in prison is to make the entire SHU into a "presidential suite" for Trump and his security detail. Everything else goes through regular prison security as normal, anything or anyone entering or leaving the SHU goes through SS in addition.
And this is why Trump will never see the inside of a jail cell. The logistics are completely unprecedented and unworkable. At most he'll get house arrest, and personally, I doubt even that.
That's not the reason why. It would be trivially easy to remove all his privileges if he were convicted of a crime. The reason is because the system is corrupt.
The answer to questions in headlines is damn near always 'no.'
Probably cheaper for the state of New York to just do house arrest with ankle bracelet. How about a halfway house?
Theyre dumb enough to keep him in eye shot, let em go
He will never go to prison
I mean he might be locked up in some way, technically.
But yeah, he'll never go to normal people prison.
i vote that we just kill the president if they get arrested, it solves more than one problem 🤷